364 A SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OP 



Of any observations in Natural History made before the introduction of 

 printing into this country, little indeed has been preserved ; if there were in 

 England any persons occupied in original investigation, all record of their 

 labours so far as we can discover, has been lost. 



But it indeed appears that very little interest in Science existed in the 

 end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, for though 

 books were printed in England in Edward IV.'s reign (1474, if not earlier), 

 it was not till 1516 that any work on Natural History issued from the 

 press. This was a botanical book in small folio, The Grete Herball, illus- 

 trated with rough block wood-engravings, and printed at Southwark by 

 Peter Treveris. It appears to be a translation of a French book, the Grand 

 Herbier, itself only translated from the celebrated Ortus Sanitatis, long the 

 mine from which the early authors dug material for their semi-botanical 

 treatises. 



There is little enough of anything like science in this old herbal, yet 

 nothing better was produced in England for many years. Several editions* 

 were indeed published, but without improvements; that of 1526 is the 

 best known. No attempt is made to distinguish between native and foreign 

 species, nor are any localities given. 



A taste for botanical studies, however, soon began to appear, for we are 

 told by a contemporary writer that ' there have bene in England & there are 

 now also certain learned men which have as muehe knowledge in herbes, 

 yea & more than diverse Italianes & Germanes, whyehe have set forthe in 

 prynte herballes & bokes of simples. I mean of Doctor Clement, Doctor 

 Mendif & Doctor Owen, Doctor Wotton & Master Falconer. Yet none of 

 these set forth any thyng.' This extract is from the ' Prologe ' to the first 

 part of ^ New Herball, which was printed in London in 1661 ; the author 

 was William Turner, who is well known as the ' Father of British Botany.' 



This eminent man was born at Morpeth, Northumberland, about the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, and is supposed to have been the son of 

 a tanner of that place ; the exact date of his birth is not known. He was- 

 educated at Cambridge at Lord Wentworth's expense, and was elected 

 Fellow of Pembroke College in 1530.t We know from his own statement 

 (Preface to Herball of 1668) that he held that fellowship in 1538, in 

 which year he published his first botanical work. It is called Libellus do 

 lie Herbaria noviis, and was printed in London in the form of a quarto 

 tract of twenty pages. Although he says in the preface that he was at 

 this time very young, the contents show that he had already studied botany 

 practically, for he notices the localities of several plants in his native 

 county of Northumberland. With regard to these, it is interesting to 

 remark that they are the earliest printed records of the kind in England. 



Turner about this time became Latimer's disciple, embraced .with en- 



* We have seen copies dated 1526, 1529, 1539 (without figures). One is said to have 

 appeared so late as 1561. 



t B.A. 1529-30, junior treasurer of his college 1532, commenced II.A. 1533, senior 

 treasurer 153S.— Cooj/er' s Athena Cantabrigienses, i. p. 206. 



